Raise kids by rewarding them each time they take a risk and reward them just the same when they fail.
Stay Positive & Do The Same For Yourself While You’re At It
Garth E. Beyer
Author: Garth Beyer
SocialMediaNoise& White Space
The problem at large with social media, particularly Twitter and Facebook, is that it is all noise and no white space.
Twitter is averaging less and less on click-throughs and I’m not surprised. Half the content shared is ridiculous (go click a couple of links if you don’t agree). The other half just blends in with all the other feed and the value is lost in noise. As for Facebook, all the content that is shared are pictures rarely offering any insight in which you seek. The terrible part is there is no white space in either.
Social media is about a constant flow of admired information but admired information is meaningless if there’s no white space after it to digest. That is why you may learn an idea, try to share it with someone, forget half of it and forget where you got the idea from. There was no time for it to cultivate and for the source to get credit. The noise and lack of white space is why more people are deleting “friends” on Facebook and unfollowing people on Twitter.
Of course everyone is still using the constant feed stream, it’s one of the most valuable sources of information…when used correctly. Those who use the content stream properly are those who only click-through on valuable content tweeted, posted and shared by those in their tribe. Content they can interact with and the interaction is what creates white space and a further understanding of the content. The interaction turns the content into an experience which sticks to the memory.
Social media gives too much of an overload of info. If you are looking for something new without an expectation of solid content, then click a few Twitter links. If you want content, stick with Google. If you want an experience, use Twitter, Facebook and any social media with those who connect with you, that interact, that both, you and the person you’re interacting with, can expand and learn. That is why Twitter was held at such a high value, until too many people created too much noise. Curse the followback button
Stay Positive & Make More White Space
Garth E. Beyer
Enlighten Others
Complaints
If there were a point to complaints, they would call them compoints.
Stay Positive & Favor Acceptance
Garth E. Beyer
Enlighten Others
Customer Service Is More Than Just Customer Service
I saw the story about a waiter getting a $5,000 dollar tip earlier today. It reminded me of a post I wrote a long while back related to a tip of 1% being given on a $133.54 bill and how I typically tip around 30% on waiters and waitresses. I referred to my tactic as Dressing Casual But Getting Looked At Like The Top 1%
Seeing this video however just confirms that if you want to be tipped big, then your customer service abilities must be out-freaking-standing. On my earlier post regarding the 1% tip, I mentioned that I typically tip a large amount but if the customer service is terrible, then I tip an “average” to “below-average” amount. However, what my average tipping amount, or anyones average tipping amount is has very little to do with how much of a big tip a waiter or waitress would get.
If the customer service provided is the most significant you have ever received, do you think the waiter or waitress will care if they get tipped $60 from a guy like me or $55 from a typical person? Both will make the waiter or waitress ecstatic. One waitress who I tipped $50 ended up friending me on Facebook and saying how appreciative she was. Regardless of the type of person that is being served, if you want a huge tip, the waiter or waitress (or you) have to work for it.
Great customer service doesn’t stop at just giving great customer service. The waiter that received the $5,000 dollar tip had much more than great customer service. It was noted in the video that the couple who had given him the huge tip were regulars. This means he wasn’t providing great service solely to them, he had it toward everyone. The couple had not only first hand experience with the waiter, they had seen how he treated everyone else while they were there. It wasn’t a one time deal. The waiter was consistent in his excellent customer service.
Above all, the reason why the waiter got the $5,000 tip, and the one quality that makes customer service essential, is that he connected with his customers. He was human, he talked to them, they knew about his smashed up car, he befriended them. He made a personal connection with a customer on top of delivering phenomenal customer service. Remember what I said about serving in the business 101 class
Stay Positive & Big Tips Happen Because You Care That They Care
Garth E. Beyer
Enlighten Others
Good News or Bad News First?
Once you realize that there is always a bad part to every good part and good part to every bad part, whether it affects you or not, the choice between hearing the good news or bad news first becomes easy to pick. In fact, you don’t even need to pick at all. All that matters is which side you listen to.
Stay Positive & Remember The Third Law Of Emotion
Garth E. Beyer
Enlighten Others
Garth’s Riff On FollowBack Courtesy
I had nearly 500 followers on Twitter four days ago. Something had changed and I lost almost 100 of them.
The reason behind it? Dunbar’s Law, or at least an attempt at it. I thought I would carry the 150 maximum of people in a group to the web. I would only follow 150 people who interacted, who had fun, who shared concrete content and who really connected. Four days ago, I spent an hour unfollowing nearly everyone who has never communicated with me or who I do not remember getting any links or information worth reading from their tweets. I unfollowed roughly 900 people, half of which were people who were also following me. Keep that in mind.
After I cleared out those who I followed, my followers dropped increasingly. People who programmed their Twitter to only follow those who followed them, no longer followed me. What does this have to say about follow-back courtesy? A lot.
Taking my statistics, only 1/9th or 11% of your followers are only following you because you followed them. (A small percentage than what I would still assume to be true) This gives you an immediate sense that you are reaching people, that people care what you Tweet and have an inclination to interact with you. All false. For a person who has 4,000 followers that is nearly 500 of them that still have no clue who you are or care to know. Sure, that may not be a lot, but now let’s look at the number of people who I unfollowed.
Roughly 900 people I unfollowed because they had no interaction, no concrete content, and flatly, no care in the world that I exist. Which is fine – Remember, my purpose was to go after Dunbar’s law anyway, I am only wanting people of my Tribe. There’s no need to give a false sense of identity by following people who have nothing to do with my niche (other than for entertainment). This leads to the reason Twitter should get rid of the Follow-Back button.
Have you noticed that Twitter is getting less click-throughs, less interactions with multiple people, and overall less content. It’s all noise – no harmony. The reason why? Too many followers and too many people are just following back. I used to dedicate a couple of hours to reading content via twitter feed. After my second attempt, I realized how much passionate content was lacking. I merely had followed hundreds of people who had a similar interest thinking that they would want to interact over their tweets. Sorry though, I don’t think the lack of hot boys in the midwest has anything to do with public speaking. Nor does the other 899 people who we’re tweeting – roughly 45-50 people consistently tweet great information and interact continuously with people they connect best with. I am now only following around 50 people, far from Dunbar’s law.
Let’s look at Twitter from the should-be view.
Twitter should not be only about following people, it should be about interacting. Twitter should not have a follow-back button because you don’t want people to follow you because you follow them. Do you realize that if you have two people following each other, you get nowhere? Twitter should be about being a leader, connecting to other leaders, and teaching followers how to become a leader. To become a Twitter leader: create harmonic content, consistently interact with other leaders and passionate followers, and by all means, to become a Twitter leader, quit following people back.
Stay Positive & Follow Forward Instead
Garth E. Beyer
Enlighten Others
The Right Perspective On Mentorship
You’re looking for mentors to give to you, but you need to give to them.
When you get a mentor, as it benefits anyone who does, the obligation to fulfill expectations is only the base of what defines the relationship between mentor and pupil.
What makes it work is what you have to show and give the mentor. Not in the sense of doing as the mentor says, but doing more, proving them wrong, and surprising them. You may view them as a mentor, but they need to view themselves as observers, as pushers, as people who are about to get their minds blown.
The thing about this post-industrial society is that the teachers, mentors, evaluators and advisers… they need to be re-taught. They have grown up learning how to follow orders and eventually on how to give orders, how to maintain the status quo and the terrible curriculum of teaching set by tradition. It’s your job as the pupil of a mentor to be the teacher, to represent this post-industrial generation and to not only create something innovative and irreplaceable, but to change the way education is taught.
Stay Positive & Let’s Remind Them What It Means To Be A Mentor
Garth E. Beyer